North Cascades National Park is known to be one of the hardest National Parks to access. The main reason is that there are no major roads going into it. The entire area is actually known as the North Cascades National Park Complex, made up of North Cascades National Park, Ross Lake National Recreation Area, and Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.
Out of the three, Ross Lake is the most accessible, and since we were only there for the day, we decided to drive the Cascade Loop Scenic Byway, which took us through it. The drive is a small portion of the iconic 440-mile drive around Washington, said to showcase the most scenic and diverse landscapes the state has to offer:
The Sourdough Mountain hike, which is what we were hoping to do, was closed at the time. We were surprised to find how short the season was for a lot of the PNW National Parks!
We can’t wait to make our way back up to the area and step foot into the park and experience the beauty up close.
Have you visited the Pacific Northwest? What was your favorite place there?
ESTHER + JACOB
Esther and Jacob are the founders of Local Adventurer, which is one of the top 50 travel blogs in the world. They believe that adventure can be found both near and far and hope to inspire others to explore locally. They move to a new city every year and currently live in Portland, Oregon.
